On Jan 24, 2007, at 11:50 AM, Mark Mazer wrote:
>> From the International mail manual of the USPS:
>
>
> 720 Plant and Animal Quarantine Inspection
> 721 What Is Subject to Inspection
> All packages that contain plants, plant products, soil, plant pests,
> plant material used for packing, animals, and animal products and
> byproducts, including meats, are subject to agricultural quarantine
> inspection by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (see DMM 601).
>
> 722 Segregation and Handling
> 722.1 Treatment of Packages Labeled for Inspection
> 722.11 Dispatch of Packages
> Dispatch packages bearing green and yellow or red and white address
> labels to the Agriculture Department inspection points shown on the
> labels.
>
> 722.12 Marking
> After the packages are inspected and cleared, they will be stamped
> "RELEASED" or "TREATED AND RELEASED," redirected to the addressees,
> and returned to the mail for delivery.
This statement is not clear as to whether additional postage is
required. That is one of the issues that both the addressees and APHIS
are having problems with. The local APHIS station is not equipped to
handle money in any form. That's why they wanted either actual postage
stamps or a FedEx account number that they could charge to.
The fact that the agent I talked to (and it was a very pleasant
conversation--he seems as troubled by the uncertainties that remain in
this new import method as I am) told me he had called several people
and departments above his level to find out if there was a final
resolution to these issues only to discover that it isn't resolved yet,
tells me there is still a problem.
>
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> All it takes is a credit card and ten minutes to apply online with
> FEDEX for a shipping account number
While this appealed to me as the simplest least problematic method to
resolve this, FedEx is not really set up to easily or cheaply deliver
packages locally over short distances. I haven't checked, but I'd be
surprised if they could deliver the small box of Rachel's seeds from
the airport to my doorstep for US $1.35 and accomplish this in 24-36
hours including Saturdays like the postal service can. And what about a
single envelope of seeds that would only cost US $0.39 for the same
service? FedEx seems like overkill for seeds, plus they only deliver
Mon-Fri and they don't have regular daily delivery out to my house.
>
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> If your goal is to receive your seeds, call the appropriate APHIS
> plant inspection station to acertain their current procedures and
> comply with them rather than complaining and pissing them off
This is exactly what I've done. But even the two agents I spoke with
realized that the current method is still problematic and certain
important details have not been resolved, especially the disagreement
between the USDA and the USPS about final delivery. It's interesting
that Australia, where they are notorious for charging full price for
just about every government service, has no problem with continuing
delivery to the final destination after inspection without any
additional charges. I think New Zealand does the same. I believe those
were the two countries that used to have stricter seed import
regulations that any other country. It seems we could have easily
adopted their method which seems to work well. (Although I don't like
the idea of a restrictive "white list" of permissable species rather
than a black list of prohibited species like we still have.)
--Lee Poulsen
Pasadena, California, USDA Zone 10a
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> Adam, rather than conjecture, the international postal union
> regulations are online in PDF form, please download them and provide
> the appropriate rule to the list so that we may have something
> concrete to go by. Will ignore the political BS
>
> Mark